Some changes in .NET BCL 4.0

  2 min read   DEVELOPER, NEWS
I’ve been porting a few products to .NET 4.0 and came across some cool new additions in .NET 4.0 which will be quite useful for developers. Strings String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace Like the String.IsNullOrEmpty method, this new helper method will check whether the string is null, empty or contains only whitespace characters (from Char. ...

ZFS gets deduplication

  1 min read   FILE SYSTEMS, OPENSOLARIS, ZFS
ZFS now has deduplication support which is as easy as just setting a property on the file system. zfs set dedup=on tank/src Read Jeff Bonwick’s (the supremo source for ZFS) article as it covers everything you’d ever want to know about what deduplication is and the various strategies behind it. ...

Quick Fix: jQuery $.getJSON() fails in IE6 & IE7

  1 min read   DEVELOPER, TIPS
Had a nasty issue with jQuery + Json + IEx just now – still at work because of it! This bit of code works perfectly fine on Firefox and Chrome: function onUnitsModified() { $.getJSON("<%=Url.Action("GetTotalUnitCount", "ProjectReaper")%>", null, function(result) { if(result > 0) // Do stuffs here } }); return true; } But in IE we’ve come to realise that the first hit is successful, future Json requests ones are not hitting the ASP. ...

FIX: OpenSolaris Package Manager fails after adding Extras Repository

  2 min read   OPENSOLARIS
After setting up the extras repository for OpenSolaris I tried to install VirtualBox via the package manager. thushan@zeusy:~$ pfexec pkg install virtualbox Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/pkg", line 2598, in ? __ret = main_func() File "/usr/bin/pkg", line 2541, in main_func return install(mydir, pargs) File "/usr/bin/pkg", line 710, in install update_index=update_index) File "/usr/lib/python2. ...

Setting up OpenSolaris Extras Repository for VirtualBox, True-Type Fonts, Flash & JavaFX SDK

  2 min read   OPENSOLARIS
I’ve been messing about with OpenSolaris (you’ll know why soon!) and decided to install the OpenSolaris Extras repository so I can grab the latest VirtualBox install from the repository. This repository has the following packages (as of writing) and is recommended if you plan on using VirtualBox: NAME (PUBLISHER) VERSION STATE UFIX SUNWadmj (extra) 0. ...

Rebuilding Zeus – Part I.5: Change of heart, change of hardware.

  3 min read   FILE SYSTEMS, NAS, ZEUS
After a bit of digging around, my original spec’d hardware I’ve decided is too much for a boxen that will be on 24×7, especially with the rates for electricity going up next year – every little Watt counts. The existing 65W CPU isn’t ideal, instead I’m opting for a 45W CPU instead and this means – looking at the lineup, its going to be a walk down AMD way. ...

Part I: Rebuilding ZEUS, the journey of training the next home server

  5 min read   FILE SYSTEMS, NAS, ZEUS
I’ve been looking at upgrading our existing home server from the archaic (and unsupported!) Ubuntu Gutsy (because I was feeling gutsy at the time) to something newer, fresher and that will last me at least another 2 years. This is purely for my documentation. Current Setup Currently running an AMD setup with Ubuntu Gutsy (7. ...

Thunderbird 3.0 Beta 4 fixes corrupted summary files!

  1 min read   NEWS
Since ditching Outlook after Outlook 2003 (Outlook 2007, 2003 was fine in comparison) came around I’ve been using Mozilla Thunderbird as my ever faithful email client. Its fast, lightweight and not as bloated as Outlook is – couple it with Lightning and you’ll be laughing! Thunderbird 3 brings some cool features for users with the biggest being tabbed message windows (and calendars etc). ...

Keeping track of time with ntp in Linux

  1 min read   HOW-TO, LINUX, TIPS
So today we had to move our clocks forward 1 hour (at 2am). Just realised that our Ubuntu box (zeus) was not displaying the right time to begin with (prior to the change). So to keep your computer clock in time with the world, use ntp. sudo ntpdate [timeserver] I use the Melbourne AAPT time-server but you can find another here or if your an aussie, use these: ...